Ammunition magazines hold a plurality of rounds of cartridges in stacked relationship within the magazine. The magazine is inserted into the receiver of the firearm such as a semi-automatic handgun and during firing operation the cartridges are fed into the chamber with the upper most cartridge being ejected from the magazine into the firearm.
A magazine typically has an elongate housing with a spring loaded follower slidably positioned therein. The bottom of the magazine is closed and the upper end is open and is the ejection end. The cartridges are loaded sequentially within the magazine against the spring force exerted by the follower. There are several cartridge stacking arrangements including an arrangement where the cartridges are vertically aligned within the magazine and others where the cartridges are vertically offset with respect to one another.
In order for the magazine to properly operate, a substantial spring force must be exerted in order to properly force or reject the cartridges from the upper end of the magazine. It is conventional practice to manually reload the magazine after all of the cartridges have been expended. Normally this is done by compressing the follower and the compression spring from the open top of the clip and sliding replacement cartridges into the magazine in a somewhat angular orientation as the follower and spring are compressed. As additional cartridges are positioned in the magazine, the spring becomes more difficult to compress.
Because of the difficulty in manually reloading clips, various devices can be found in the prior art which are reloader devices which will assist the user in the reloading operation by either holding the magazine in a position or assisting in compressing the follower and the spring. Representative patents directed to reloaders of different types include the following.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,249,386 and 5,377,436 both show a cartridge clip reloader which has a sleeve which receives the clip in seated relationship during reloading. A plunger is manually reciprocal to depress the top cartridge in the cartridge clip to accommodate receiving another cartridge. An operator arm connected to the plunger is manually operable by the user's thumb so the user may insert the cartridges into the clip with the other hand.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,719,715 and 4,689,909 both show similar magazine charger devices having a body with a spring and an open end for receiving the magazine to be loaded. A plunger operates to sequentially depress the upper-most cartridge to facilitate feeding a cartridge into the magazine.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,464,855 shows a device for filling magazines which has a channel shaped side with a tray at the end. The tray is dimensioned so that it fits into the magazine. The device is positioned against the side of the magazine and is pulled downwardly to compress the spring within the magazine.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,355,606 shows a device for loading ammunition which is in the form of an elongated housing to which is mounted a manually depressable rod. The housing is mounted in a fixed position on the exterior of the clip. Depressing the actuator will cause the cartridges contained within the clip to be moved downwardly.
It is noted that in the prior art, holders for a plurality of cartridges are sometimes referred to as "clips" and other times as "magazines". It is believed that the term "magazine" is more accurate and will be used herein to broadly cover cartridge holders and is intended to encompass both devices referred to as "clips" and those referred to as "magazines".